French Stablecoin Swap Tax Wins Committee Vote Before Budget Setback

A French stablecoin swap tax moved a step closer this week, then immediately ran into a procedural wall. France's National Assembly Finance Committee adopted an amendment that would treat swapping crypto into euro- or dollar-pegged stablecoins as a taxable sale from January 1, 2027, Decrypt reported, before rejecting the 2027 budget's entire revenue section by 31 votes to 3 on Friday, October 9.

What happened

The stablecoin measure was filed by Nicolas Sansu of the left-wing GDR group with 16 co-signers. It targets what the authors call "a hole in the legislation": under current French rules, exchanging bitcoin for a stablecoin triggers no tax, because the state only collects when gains are converted into regular money or spent. The amendment covers electronic money tokens as defined by MiCA, the EU's crypto rulebook, a category that includes most single-currency stablecoins. From the start of 2027, a swap into one would count as a sale, with the gain measured against the holder's original cost.

Bitcoin.com News identified the text as Amendment I-CF1826 and quoted Sansu's argument that the change "does not create any new burden" but simply applies existing tax law "to a case that had not been taken into account." He also said Italy and the UK have legislated in a similar direction. The amendment sets no rate of its own and defers to France's flat tax, which Decrypt said rose to 31.4% on January 1 after the social-charge portion was lifted from 17.2% to 18.6%.

The committee approved two more crypto measures. A second Sansu amendment would extend France's exit tax, a levy on unrealized gains charged when someone moves their tax residence abroad, to households whose combined crypto holdings exceed €800,000, provided the taxpayer was a French resident for at least six of the previous ten years. Crypto-to-crypto swaps with no cash leg would not count as sales for exit-tax purposes, and departing taxpayers would have to declare all holdings, including self-custodied wallets and assets held abroad. Decrypt said the €800,000 threshold matches the one already used for shares, and that the authors argue crypto held directly escapes the exit tax today while shares of the same value do not, pointing to how easily digital assets move across borders. A third amendment, from Daniel Labaronne, would let investors carry crypto losses forward for ten years, as they already can with shares.

Why it matters

The French stablecoin swap tax would remove what local investors treat as a pressure valve. Owen Simonin, founder and chief executive of crypto investment platform Meria, told Bitcoin.com News the change would take away one of the last real levers of tax flexibility for French investors. "Stablecoins were the rest stop when an investor stepped out of the highly volatile crypto market before jumping back in later. Now that rest stop comes with a fee?" he said.

The bigger story may be the vote that followed. Because the committee rejected the revenue section as a whole, the full Assembly will start from the government's original text, without any of the crypto amendments. Decrypt said their backers would have to table them again for the floor debate. Neither measure is law, and both would still need to survive the rest of the legislative process. The dispute also plays out against the wider fight over France's public finances, which we covered in our report on the French 2027 budget, and follows other attempts to rewrite stablecoin taxation, such as the US ADAPT Act stablecoin tax bill.

French lawmakers have reached for crypto before. In late October 2025, the Assembly voted 163 to 150 in first reading for a 1% annual levy on "unproductive" wealth above €2 million that included digital assets alongside gold and yachts, Decrypt noted.

What's next

The floor debate on the revenue section opens on October 13, with a formal vote scheduled for October 20, according to Decrypt. Bitcoin.com News said the stablecoin measure and other contested amendments, including one requiring declarations of crypto above €100,000 held in self-custody, will face scrutiny when the full chamber meets.

If the French stablecoin swap tax and the exit-tax change are reintroduced and survive, they would apply from January 1, 2027. Until then, nothing changes for French holders. Investors with exposure should follow the official legislative record rather than social media summaries, because the text that reaches a final vote may differ from what the committee approved. This article is for information only and is not tax or investment advice.